May 26, 2011

"Not to be confused with a stutter, which the president decidedly does not have, the intellectual stammer signals a brain that is moving so fast that the mouth can't keep up. The stammer is commonly found among university professors, characters in Woody Allen movies and public thinkers of the sort that might appear on C-SPAN but not CNN. If you're a member or a fan of that subset, chances are the president's stammer doesn't bother you; in fact, you might even love him for it (he sounds just like your grad school roommate, especially when he drank too much Scotch and attempted to expound on the Hegelian dialectic!)."

[T]he godfather of the intellectual stammer is arguably none other than the paterfamilias of the conservative movement, William F. Buckley Jr.... In fact, if the people critiquing Obama's meandering speech patterns were to see an old "Firing Line" segment, I daresay they would think Buckley was drunk or otherwise impaired.

You listen to Obama's mouth going and notice that there's no brain anywhere in sight, and if you're a certain sort of person you assume that it's because the brain's gone on ahead. Other explanations are possible.

Wasn't Buckley's first language Spanish? Also, I got the impression from listening to him that his "stammer" was a result of searching for the choicest turn of phrase for what would seem a banal truism when plainly spoken.

But he could also use the stammer offensively, to take his interlocutor off guard, or defensively, to filibuster until he found the proper rejoinder.

I would say that Buckley was a great conversationalist. President Obama is occasionally a good talker.

Also a great conversationalist, whose stammer - admit he, he often uses one - is undoubtedly the result of too much Scotch? Hitchens.

". . .the intellectual stammer signals a brain that is moving so fast that the mouth can't keep up."

Funny how we never heard all of these interesting psychological explanations (jet lag, momentary forgetness, tangle-tongue, intellectual stammering) whenever Dubya said "newkular" or "is our children learning" or any of a host of verbal tics that had the howler monkeys on the left flinging their feces.

"A brain moving so fast." It's amazing the delusions lefties will embrace to avoid facing the fact that they placed a dimwitted, third-rate ward heeler and flatulently oratorical yammermouth in the Oval Office

Oh for crying out loud, Buckley is to Obama as Tchaikovsky is to Vanilla Ice.

Buckley used his pauses both to summon the precisely correct word and to allow the listener time to digest the last one. Obama is simply looking for a novel way to obfuscate without wandering too far from his whhelhouse. Buckley's speech was designed to convey ideas, Obama's is designed to create impressions.

I'm not sure I buy this line of argument at all. As an on-air personality, someone who makes a living by talking, you develope, within a few months of full-time work, the ability two operate on two completely different tracks. It's quite stunning when you actually realize you're doing it.

Your mouth is on semi-automatic while your brain is consciously thinking a completely different thought or thinking ahead on the topic you're already speaking about. The result is a smooth, uninterrupted flow of speech coming out of the noise hole.

Sure, DJ's of various stripes are less or more adept at this, but, for the most part, even a full-time jock in a shitty little burg has this down within a couple months of starting or they are shown the door.

Do you mean to tell me that some airhead classic rock dj in Pissant, USA has more on the ball mentally than a world class politician?

Doubtful. Sounds like ass-kissing to me with dubious stretching for external examples to back up said ass-kissery.

If Obama was that smart, he would presumably occasionally say something "smart" when speaking ad hoc without a teleprompter or rehearsed "talking points."Instead, I am amazed at how banal and how dated his impromptu expressed sentiments generally are.

Obama has a talent to do the acts from the liberal alternate reality while he mouths traditional wisdom that is 180 degrees opposite from what what he is doing. So far no one has the nerve to call him on it, except for that "racist" Joe Wilson's moment.

I understand this argument, and work with people who do this. The thing is, though, they are smart, as you can tell from wading through their stammering and looking at the contents of what they said. This is not the case with Obama.

I think this is exactly the affectation. However, he clearly adopted it to allow his brain to catch up with his mouth. It is slightly different than the pause/stammer that rules at NPR which is an adaptation.

My favorite example of this kind of thing was a professor I had (who is now a good friend) who started out to explain something at the blackboard, paused for a moment, and then said "Let me take back what I was just going to say."

Tried to look it up, not sure if I saw the exact bit you were referring to. When Geithner dissembles he doesn't do the stammer. He just turns red.

You know how news shows sometimes get handwriting experts and body language analysts for fluff pieces about politicians? I'd like to see some professional poker players on cable news analyzing politicians' tells.

There's another thing that's pretty familiar to people who have hung around academia long enough - Meghan Daum's argument. It's usually used in defense of a failed tenure candidate. "The candidate never published any papers because he had TOO MANY ideas rolling around in his head." We keep hearing all of these arguments about how brilliant BHO is, but we never see any concrete proof beyond a pedestrian autobiography.

It's too bad, because if Daum had written this five years ago, she might have gotten away with the lie. Firing Line had been off the air for long enough that the vagaries of memory might have left the claim sounding plausible, and Youtube did not yet exist as a medium by which the claim might clearly be shown to be false. Unhappily for Daum, Youtube afford us the opportunity to see many old Firing Line segments, in none of which we find a Buckley who sounds drunk or, worse yet, Obama.

I must say that in researching my comment above, Daum has done me the favor of providing an excuse for watching a number of Firing Line clips, which is always time well spent. Like Fred, I miss Buckley, but I miss shows like Firing Line even more, and while nothing short of the second coming will revive the former, any enterprising television network could spring the latter from the grave.

This is what happens when you so tightly hitch your horse to the Obama wagon. You find yourself having to pen fellatio styled articles saying he's not really a dunce, but so smart even his mouth can't keep up.

It cannot be that Daum is unaware of YouTube where her premise can be dismissed with just a few of several hundred videos. The children over there know better than what Daum would have her readers think.

How can you have an "intellectual stammer" when everything you say is a commonplace?

I see I'm not the only one here with that thought. Maybe there should be a poll.

Ms. Daum salutes Mr. Obama as an intellectual, a university man, a propounder of philosophy, yet I can't recall a single instance of him deftly explaining an idea or cutting to the core of a complex issue. Ah, his defenders will say, that's because he's so intellectual. He knows nothing is simple. The mealy-mouthed caveat is a sign of genius. Really? Let's turn to Ms. Daum as she unwittingly demolishes her own argument:

With his slouch, his glazed-eyed stare and a speaking style that suggested the entire Oxford English Dictionary was flipping through his mind while he searched for a word like "dithyramb," [William F. Buckley Jr.] makes Obama's extemporaneous speech seem canned — not to mention pedestrian — by comparison.

Isn't that exactly what his critics are saying? Everything he says is canned, pedestrian. Do you, Ms. Daum, really suggest that the great evidence of his giant brain is an ability to stammer through trivialities as he searches for cliches?

If you're going to make an argument like this, you need quotes. Quote me some Obama where his hemming and hawing actually delivers an idea worth contemplating.

Oddly, I thought the person Ms. Daum was going use to defend Obama was George Herbert Walker Bush. GHWB had a habit of speaking in non-sequiturs. Why? Because he was a genius, of course. He was processing ideas faster than his mouth could move. In between thought A and thought B a whole logical flow (and various articles and verbs) would be left out.

Oh, for crying out loud. Really? I don't see evidence of high intellect at all. Point me to the "intellectual" stuff, please? Or does intellectual mean something I possibly haven't fully grasped? OR! Let's just freaking assign it to him, I guess. Because of the way the man speaks.

First, he never has to try very hard, because they'll cover for him. So he'll always be mediocre (or less) with their "assistance."

Second, as many have said, they just make his stupidity stand out by calling him smart. If he was actually smart, he'd say something intelligent sometimes - rather than something that merely sounds smart.

Third - Buckley? Buckley? Are you kidding? "Buckley is to Obama as Tchaikovsky is to Vanilla Ice" sums that up nicely.

Fourth - talk about making your supporters look stupid! Obama apparently does that just by existing. He stands there - anywhere - causing them to babble nonsense, and the rest of us to arch our eyebrows, and screw up our faces in the get-the-straight-jackets position.

It was scary during the election. Three years into his presidency, it's simply amazing. Not as amazing as the phenomena's lack of serious coverage (we our so under served by our media, and experts on psychology, currently) but amazing enough to make the rest of us spit our coffee out every once in a while.

Now, please excuse me, because I have to get something to wipe off my keyboard.

Hoosier Daddy said..."This is what happens when you so tightly hitch your horse to the Obama wagon. You find yourself having to pen fellatio styled articles saying he's not really a dunce, but so smart even his mouth can't keep up."

Unfortunately, the urge to lovingly fondle a higher-up infects people on both sides of the aisle. Yesterday evening, I was listening to conservative talk radio—surprise!—on the way home, and there was some woman sitting in for Mark Levin. And when she referred to him, she didn't say she was sitting in for Mark Levin, she said she was sitting in for "the great one, Mark Levin." This happened at least three times before I couldn't stand it any more and switched back to EWTN. Praising your boss is one thing, but "the great one"? Really? It sounded like something out of "The Office."

(Parenthetically, either Levin is humble enough to be mortified by such fawning nonsense, or, if he likes it, is too much of a douchnozzle for the label to be even close.)

"...Unfortunately, the urge to lovingly fondle a higher-up infects people on both sides of the aisle..."

Yeah but my point was slapping on the kneepads to make some bullshit excuse for Obamas lack of intellect. The man has amply shown hes of average intelligence at best but the left will insist he's a genius.

Was toasting the Queen when God SAVE THE QUEEN was playing an intellectual stammer?

Bush's "mis-speak" proves Bush was stupid, even though things happen afterwards prove him prescient. Obama can't utter a coherent thought without TOTUS proves him brilliant with an "intellectual stammer". We live in the world of ONION.

A couple of years ago I had to do a presentation on Medicare Advantage at a conference. When my boss asked me why I didn't have any notes I told her I don't need them when I know what I'm talking about.

I didn't stutter or stammer once but that was because I hadn't started drinking yet.

You can't talk your way out of trillions of dollars of debt, no matter how articulate you are.

I'm ready to vote for a short, old, ugly candidate of average intelligence as long as he is honest, wise and has the right politics. I did vote for McCain in 2008, in the primary and general elections. He sure was short, old and ugly...

I knew that you all would find something else to slam Obama for. I am not a great Obama supporter but I believe what she is saying is true. Brain moves so fast that the words just can't come out. My grandson, at 7, has so much going on and so much to say that he can't get it all out. Seen that before with some really smart people. And,sometimes, what comes out is not comprehensible because we are getting every 3rd or 4th word.

Understandable.

So what you are saying now is that Buckley, because he was a conservative intellectual could get away with the "stammer" but Obama, a liberal, cannot. Typical rightie speak.

With his slouch, his glazed-eyed stare and a speaking style that suggested the entire Oxford English Dictionary was flipping through his mind while he searched for a word like "dithyramb," he makes Obama's extemporaneous speech seem canned — not to mention pedestrian — by comparison.

Daum attempts to set up a parallel -- Buckley = Obama -- then admits that when you actually make that comparison, Obama comes off as canned and pedestrian.

Obama seems like a reasonably bright guy, but he's no Socrates. Attempting to prove that his very lack of impressiveness shows his smartness is laughable.

I have no fondness of the glibness=smart school that rules the politics and the media. But nothing prevents a slow talker from learning an issue, gathering insight and understanding, and expressing that intelligently.

Poor John Edwards. Here he was, an oily ambulance-chasing attorney of the worst kind who had parlayed his ambulance chasing into a Senate seat. And he was going to eliminate the hitherto perpetual human problem of poverty, too.

A low-down dirty shame that he will stand wrongfully accused of federal crimes in a matter of days. Who will walk about his 15,000 square foot house? Who will tend to his wife's grave? Truly a tragedy.

1) Install turnstyle at bottom of driveway.2) Have an affair with everyone below the poverty line.3) Not sue when they release their juicy tell-all book.4) Royalties will assure they have a living wage for several years.

Excuse me for some heresy, here, but I never really believed that Obama was all that smart. He's certainly smart enough—and he can be articulate when paced by a teleprompter—but where is the evidence that he's a gifted thinker?

As for his so-called "intellectual stammer"… what a bunch of nonsense. I see no indication of his mouth trying to catch up with his brain, but rather the pretense of an actor trying to appear thoughtful. If that's not case, where are the words of wisdom we'd expect to hear once his mouth did catch up?

See, J. Coketown told us the plan. That was so easy. But you...you are too proud to stoop to such a level. You are too smart. It shows in your spelling and punctuation. And we all know anti-Semitic socialists are the smartest.

When Buckley stammered, it was because of his rich command of the English language, and his search for the precise word to convey his reasoned and defensible position. When Obama stammers, it is to cover up the paucity of his ill-thought and indefensible position with enough tissue-thin gobbledygook to fool the listener.

Henry, i agree with you. However, they all pretty much sound canned. It's too bad that President Obama couldn't sound like candidate Obama did. I'd probably like him better. I never would mistake him for an intellectual giant, like (eventhough you all hate him) Bill Clinton, but he is a smart and educated man, and can be eloquent. It is a refreshing change from the faux "aw shucks" of a Bush or McCain or Romney. They, with the exception of McCain, never had less than a silver spoon in their mouth. In the case of Bush and Romney it would probably have been platinum. It is too bad that Romney didn't get the charisma that his dad had. He was a truly awesome man and so concerned for the welfare of the downtrodden that he devoted much of his life to providing housing for the less fortunate. A truly great man. if Mitt had 1/10th of his dad's empathy and charisma he would have been elected in 2008. Instead we got Mitt, gag.

There isn't a candidate around today that has anything new to say or anything constructive to say. If one of them would get off their arses and say something that actually mattered, I'd probably get behind them. But the evangelical right wing, take my rights away from me people like Palin, Gingrich, Bachman and the like give me the willies.

Still think most of the righties are suffering from Obamaphobia. It will get them in the end and win the election for the Democrats in 2012.

Has he innovated any new ideas or devised uniqure plans or thoughts other than the same old same old? The stimulus was his first big thing as president and it was a dismal failure- he had three months to sketch it out but he handed that off to Pelosi & Reid. That was the dumbest thing anyone could have done.

You said Edwards had a plan. I just wanted to know what YOU thought that plan was. No amount of googling jollyrogerimachildxx@yahoo.com is going to tell me what YOU thought. Missing the barest of points by such a wide margin appears to be your strong suit. Insulting working class people seems to be be a close second, followed by completely baseless accusations.

Wasn't it you that said,And make baseless accusations too. wow they taught you good at Peoria transmission tech school?

Tell me, please. Since you're above baseless accusations, apparently, how do you come by information that puts me in the klan?

You're an intellectual molehill and a rhetorical punch line. Oh, and you can bench 400. So at least you can find some work carrying around the foppish bath house owners you tend to run with.

Actually vicki I am suffering from debtaphobia and defaultaphobia. Obamaphobia not so much. Maybe Obama will win in 2012 and we will be another 10 trillion in debt and bombing some other 3rd world dictator. But you'll have your Obama.

As to Obama, it's interesting to note he also spoke at the British Parliament. And, his speech was a bust. Since no one applauded. He got nothing to bounce off of.

And, yes. When you're a public speaker, or speaking in public, not only does a man have to be sure his fly is closed. And, a woman hasn't hooked the back of her skirt into her panty hose. But you need audience participation.

Not that I know how you'd speak to a bunch of deaf people. But words? It doesn't come off as the best way to do it.

And, nobody does "cold shoulders" quite like the British.

Meanwhile? Except that the bamster told Israel to go jump in the sea ... talking, here, Bibi talked to an enthusiastic chorus.

Of course, the Brits don't vote in our elections. Nor, should the dead, presumably.

Is Obama in trouble? To which side are you addressing this question?

Oh, yeah. Palin's been written off as dead. And, according to Drudge ... she's in the race! And, she's ahead of any other GOP mover & shaker.

The only question being if people will watch a two-hour documentary. We'll soon find out in Iowa!

So much about politics is not taught in schools. For instance, we've heard that Truman didn't seek a 2nd term. As well as having heard that he fired General Douglas MacArthur.

When he looks incompetent and in over his head, it's because he's bored and the job of presidency doesn't challenge him enoughThat's what Valerie Jarrett said about him a few months ago. At least *she's* on his payroll.

Could these people please, just once, admit that his shortcomings are not evidence of his superiority?

Ummmmm, no. Because the people who voted for Obama have been telling themselves all their lives that they're superior to everyone around them. So admitting that Obama isn't really as smart as they've said he is is an admission that THEY were never as smart as they thought they were.

Thus, the delusional, contorted explanations for why the rest of us are morons who can't possibly comprehend the brilliance of Teh Won continue...

It's not an "intellectual stammer," it's the Harvard Stammer, a well-recognized phenomenon in academia, especially in New England. I think it is an affectation that probably originally came from New England prep schools (which is perhaps why Buckley had it even though he was a Yalie). The primary use of the Harvard Stammer is to send the signal that you went to Harvard, but it has a very effective secondary effect of convincing susceptible people that you are "thoughtful" and not too brash (which is why people often grow out of the stammer later in life).

"Let me be clear" is one of Obama's tells. That's the signal that what will come next is some intentional obfuscation or some weak, qualified statement. He's just trying to butch up the rhetoric to make a weak statement sound stronger.

Another one is "As I have always said..." That's the signal that he's about to throw someone under the bus.

I don't buy the "intellectual stammer' business. Buckley actually said something intellectual after the stammer.

I've noticed the professorial nature of his stammer before, and I think it's a purposeful affectation on his part, to make himself seem more thoughtful and professorial.

I remember seeing this quite a bit at university -- the innocent quirks of great professors would be mimicked by lesser professors.

I'm not surprised that liberals and academics (but I repeat myself) are taken in by the con. To a certain extent, I think, these artificial trappings of the academy helped win our hostess's vote. "Hey, he's like me," she thought. "He can't be that bad -- he can't be a full-blown socialist nincompoop."

No. Think back - Woody Allen and your drunken grad school roommate talked FAST - Obama doesn't. He's just mimicking cadences for effect- he has several depending on audience.

Employs is the operative word. He *employs* the stammer. Meghan is either a patsy or it's all she knows, coming from the land of actors.

I thought WFB was drunk or at least drank. Look at his bleary Bing Crosby eyes as well as the coloring and texture of his skin.

I missed WFB's prime time, but I remembering reading about his accent in the Preppie Handbook when I was in junior high. Wait...how old is Obama? He may have been just within range to read it too - in his early twenties maybe?

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